Award was set up to recognise the importance that infection control professionals play in limiting the spread of bacterial resistance and hospital acquired infections
Robert Spencer, chair of the Hospital Infection Society, Professor Gary French, chairman of the Guy's and St Thomas's Hospital Trust Infection Control Committee and board member of the International Federation of Infection Control, Christine Perry, chair of the Infection Control Nurses Association, and Mark Wilcox, clinical director in charge of microbiology for the Leeds Teaching Hospitals (the largest group of teaching hospitals in Europe) have all joined the judging panel for the Oxoid Infection Control Team of the Year Award.
The Oxoid Award was set up to recognise the importance that infection control professionals play in limiting the spread of bacterial resistance and hospital acquired infections.
The award is open to teams that include anyone working in microbiology laboratories, infection control doctors, consultant microbiologists, infection control nurses, in fact everyone involved in infection control. The £5000 first prize can be spent on a special team-building event, on training or to cover travel expenses to conferences and seminars.
The winning team makes its own choice.
Second and third prize winners receive £1000 and £500 respectively.
"There are few good opportunities to raise the profile of infection control and to secure some additional money to help with that process", Mark Wilcox stresses.
"This excellent award enables both these things at the same time, so I am highly supportive".
"This Oxoid Award excels in raising the profile of infection control", adds Robert Spencer, "Infection control was regarded as the Cinderella of healthcare and hospitals for far too long.
"With the advent of MRSA and other resistant micro-organisms and concern over cleanliness in hospitals, the Department of Health has at last made infection control and healthcare-associated infections a priority.
"The Chief Medical Officer will be publishing a strategy later this year".
Entry is simple - there are no forms to complete.
Just send a two-page summary describing the infection control challenges in your hospital; advise how team members work together to respond to these challenges; describe the outcome of their work, including any new testing, reporting or auditing practices and procedures adopted; and describe why this has improved things for patients and the hospitals with which you work.
The Oxoid 'Infection Control Team of the Year Award" closes on 31 December 2003.
